Rigging a Low Poly Character in Maya 2018
What you'll learn
- Rig biped characters of their own
Requirements
- You should have a basic familiarity with Maya's hotbox interface.
- You should be able to distinguish between world and object space
- You should have a basic knowledge of hierarchies.
- You should understand the relationship between an objects Transform node and its Shape node
Description
Rigging can be a very excruciatingly technical step in creating animatable characters. This class aims to present a step-by-step guide to creating a functional character rig that will allow the animator to deliver a believable performance. Being able to rig characters from scratch empowers the animator to be able to create characters of their own free from the constraints of automatic rigging solutions. Make no mistake, such solutions are great timesavers, but they can tend to limit the animator.
We will create this rig using Manlo, the character we modeled, UV mapped and surfaced in Model a Low-Polygon Character in Maya 2018, so if you are new to Maya, you should at least have that course under your belt. Also, please note that this is an intermediate class. The author assumes you have a functional understanding of basic Maya tools as the move, rotate, and scale tools, shelf and tool locations and using Maya's hotbox to access them; concepts like X, Y, and Z movement and axes, object vs. world space movement and rotations and hierarchies. The author will address these ideas in terms of rigging characters, however, they may be unfamiliar to beginners.
That said, at the end of this course, you will have both a rigged character that you can use in your own animations AND the skill set to create animated characters of your very own!
Who this course is for:
- Anyone who wants to rig 3D modeled characters in Maya.
Instructor
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 123 Reviews
- 510 Students
- 3 Courses
Eric Kunzendorf has been teaching computer graphics and animation at the college level for the last two decades at such varied institutions as Jacksonville University, the New Hampshire Institute of Art, the Atlanta College of Art and the School of Visual Arts’ Savannah campus. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Art history from Columbia University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from the University of Georgia.
Most recently, Eric has completed courses for Pluralsight (formerly Digital Tutors), a company that has been delivering video courses in Animation and Digital Art on CD, DVD and online for over a decade. Eric has also contributed to several books including “Mastering Maya 8.5”, “Mastering Maya 7”, “Maya 5 Savvy” and “Maya: Secrets of the Pros Vol. 1”. His animations, “Final Project Assignment” and “Mime In A Box”, have made appearances at the Siggraph Computer Animation Festival in 1999 and 2000 respectively. His 2004 animation "The Secret Life of Netsuke" won first place in SEDAF-the Southeastern Digital Arts Festival. His animation “Courage” appeared in the 2010 CitrusCel animation festival in Jacksonville, Florida. Most recently, his animation “datastreamimagination” appeared in the 2019 Breckenridge Film Festival in Breckenridge, Colorado, the 2019 Florida Animation Festival in Tallahassee, Florida and the International Animation Day-ASIFA in Atlanta, GA. His animation eternityintheirhearts appeared in the GenCon 2023 Film Festival and the 2024 Columbus International Film and Animation Festival. He has also exhibited computer-generated prints on the regional and national level.